Helen Rees
Revolting Femininity: Women and Disgust in Late Medieval Italy
My research considers how disgust is created and sustained in religious and secular texts across 13th and 14th Century Italy, looking specifically at the disgust of women. It builds on pre-existing histories of emotion. I am using heretical trials, saint’s lives, and literary texts to understand how and why revulsion is simulated in people, and what systems it aims to uphold. I am interested in the linguistics of emotion, as well as how emotions interact with the senses, and how emotion correlates with physical space. I also research the use of words that denote filth and disease and consider how these are used to create feelings of moral disgust.
Biography
Helen completed her undergraduate degree in Ancient and Medieval History from the University of Birmingham in 2023. She continued her studies at the University of York, completing an MA in Medieval Studies. In between her MA and her PhD, Helen worked in heritage around York. In 2026, she started a PhD, supervised by Kenneth Clarke and Lucy Sackville. Her research interests broadly include emotional history, sanctity, gender, heresy, Dante, and Boccaccio.